THE ROHINGYA ‘RATHER DIE’ THAN RETURN TO MYANMAR
Refugees suspicious of repatriation deal inked between Dhaka and Yangon
COX’S BAZAR
DISEASE, hunger and misery stalk the Rohingya living in Bangladesh’s refugee camps but despite the grinding hardship, few are willing to consider the alternative — returning home under a deal struck with Myanmar.
The arrangement signed by Myanmar and Bangladesh last month to start repatriating refugees within two months is viewed with deep suspicion and dread by Rohingya still traumatised by the violent expulsion from their homeland.
“They make deals, but they won’t follow them,” said Rohingya refugee Mohammad Syed, who estimated his age at 33.
“When we go back, they will torture and kill us again.”
Their fear is not misplaced. Doctors Without Borders said on Thursday at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in the first month of a Myanmar army crackdown on rebels in Rakhine State that began in August.
The worst bouts of violence had subsided, but Rohingya continued to flee, the United Nations said.
Nearly 650,000 of the Muslim minority had fled across the border into the distric here in southeastern Bangladesh since the army campaign began.
The UN rights chief said this month the catalogue of abuses, A Bangladeshi man helping Rohingya Muslim refugees to disembark from a boat on the Bangladeshi shoreline of the Naf river. including indiscriminate killings, mass rape and the razing of hundreds of Rohingya villages, contained “elements of genocide”.
Myanmar had consistently denied committing atrocities in Rakhine State, saying the crackdown was a proportionate response to the Rohingya militants who attacked police posts on Aug 25, killing around a dozen officials.
But rights groups said the conditions were not in place to ensure safe, voluntary and dignified returns, and Rohingya sense danger lurking behind Myanmar’s assurances.
“It’s a trap. They have given
such assurances before, and still made our lives hell,” said Rohingya woman Dolu, who goes by one name, in a refugee camp here.
“I would rather live here. We get food and shelter here, and we can pray freely. We are allowed to live.”
The Rohingya have reason to be wary.
The persecuted minority has been the target of past pogroms in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, which does not recognise the group as a genuine ethnicity and has stripped them of citizenship.
Many have no homes left after their villages were torched.
Those still living in Rakhine State, Myanmar’s poorest state, faced heavy restrictions on work,
travel and access to basic services.
More than 100,000 Rohingya displaced by a 2012 outbreak of violence had been trapped in squalid camps in central Rakhine State ever since.
Aid groups had warned Myanmar they would boycott any new camps for Rohingya returnees, saying refugees must be allowed to settle in their own homes and not forced into ghetto-like conditions.
“They have to recognise us as citizens of the country. They have to give us proper Rohingya identity cards. Only then we will go back,” said Rohingya Aziz Khan at Kutupalong, a gigantic camp here. “Otherwise, we would rather die here in Bangladesh.” AFP